My smallest laser Yet

[iskor12]

It's not that messy! I like it. Extremely small, but with a respectable shot of power. Neat little brass module your diode is in. How long do the batteries last?

As for right now...I am not sure how long they will last. The average CR2016 has 90mah. This build has 2 of them for a total of 180mah. So in theory, it should run for about 25 to 35 minutes. However this laser is driven directly by the batteries, so when the voltage drops on the batteries, so does the current output. So in reality...20 to 25 minutes with it being very bright and most likely an additional 20 min until it's very dim.(Lithium batteries are very hard to predict, so I could be way off) I only have about 5-10min on this because I keep my Duty cycles real short, due to the lack of heat sinking, and it still looks very bright.

Current varries....It's right around 300mA and sometimes peaks at around 350mA, Which really isn't that bad.

Although I always recomend a driver to keep the current level safe and steady, I am quite suprised at how stable it actually is with out a driver, with these batteries. To be honest, the only thing that worries me now, is the higher than normal voltage level that I am driving the diode with.

 

[iskor12]

Just for fun, I decided to take a beam shot about 5 minutes ago with this laser. Here it is. It is still rather bright out, where I live.
FYI: I have had this laser hooked onto my keychain all day. This thing is going to take a beating.

 

[rangedunits]

Add a glass lense And a beam extender.

 

[Asherz]

The biggest problem in his pointer is that it doesn't have a driver. That's why I was saying that somebody should make some really small driver.


I remember seeing at digikey.com some ICs described as laser diode drivers. I wonder if these could make single component drivers...

Something like this : http://cache.national.com/ds/LM/LMH6525.pdf

They're only $13 with shipping (24h), and they are really small.

ok, I understand what you meant, you mean having a fully functional current regulated laser in a mini host, my bad

That component does look very interesting, it says it's for use in an actual DVD drive so maybe they are already in most the drives we extract diodes from?

I don't know much about electronics above building a DDL driver, but I'm sure someone around here will know if we can use that as a driver.

 

[aXit]

The average CR2016 has 90mah. This build has 2 of them for a total of 180mah.

Because they're in series, you only get the capacity of the lowest capacity battery in the loop. So still 90mAh.

What are you using as the housing for the diode? Is that module available somewhere?

 

[iskor12]

That particular one was given to me, but if you do a search on google, you will be able to find it.
Here is one that is similar, but I am not sure if it is the same diameter though.
RED LASER DIODE MODULE, ADJ. FOCUS | AllElectronics.com

 

[martianpc]

Very cool build, I hope it last a long time

 

[Deleted member 8382]

of they are in series the capacity is still 90 mah, so I wouldn't expect it to last more than just some minutes. Considering it doesn't have heatsink, you don't want to drive it for more than some seconds anyway xD

 

[iskor12]

I have had it running for about 15 seconds for my longest duty cycle.

Still...I am around 10 min on it. It seems a little bit dimmer, but it's still very bright.

 

[megha]

nice built. compact but doesn`t look very solid. Do you use it as keychain everyday ? How did you glued the diode?

 

[laserlands]

cool~~~~

 

[iskor12]

nice built. compact but doesn`t look very solid. Do you use it as keychain everyday ? How did you glued the diode?

Believe it or not, it is rather solid. I have had it on my keychain for about a week now and it is still running strong.

No glue was used in this build. I grabed a blank module that I had and heated it up. Then I pressed the plastic housing around it....thus melting it to the exact size and shape of the module. Then there are also screws that hold the case together as well..(4 screws) Then once I asembled it, I focused the module to my liking and then put some Locktite on the threads thus preventing the focus from changing due to ruff handling.

Trust me...this thing is solid.

cool~~~~

Thanks